Customer Reviews

Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 1

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Enjoyed the book and found it worthwhile. The stories are inspiring and could have a significant influence on a student of entrepreneurship or an aspiring entrepreneur. To paraphrase a trite phrase; "Yes, you can!" The stories are more than inspiration though. The insightful questions and the thoughtful answers give much guidance, and general wisdom. The book occupies a nearly empty niche between lightweight collections of anecdotes and ponderous but often irrelevant academic research. A great opportunity to come close to sitting with masters and learning directly.

Sramana Mitra has become a different kind of voice in the tech and business world with her insightful interviewing style wherein she quickly establishes a deep sense of rapport with her subjects enabling them to confide the worries, passions, fears and inspirations which have driven their entrepreneurial ventures.

Another strength that shines through is Sraman's ability to let us hear the "voice" of the entrepreneurs she has interviewed and written about. With her own depth of personal expertise, she easily could have overwhelmed or dominated the conversations. Yet she shows great stylistic skill in using her own depth of experience (as an M Eng. (EE) and having been a successful tech entrepreneur and consultant) in drawing out and helping her subjects express the insights others would have missed or failed to recognize in the first place.

And if you have a secret love of history and geopolitics, you will enjoy the way she has spiced some of her interviews by drawing out the backgrounds of her interview subjects. A couple of specific examples for me included the interview with Philippe Courtot, or Marcos Galperin or Harish Hande.

THE REAL VALUE in this book however, is the portability of the experiences captured and documented by this inspiring writer. I personally have little core interest in the world of tech entrepreneurship (beyond being a grateful user) but the way Sramana has unveiled the thinking processes of her subjects has helped me reflect on their experiences and "port" their transcendent insights over into my own spheres of business interest.

I'm anticipating more great interviews and insights from Sramana, including how entrepreneurs will shape the development of Web 3.0, and healthcare and education at 'the bottom of the pyramid' (to borrow a phrase from CK Prahalad).

Highly recommend this book to anyone with a great idea but understanding the need to avoid the many landmines hidden along the entrepreneurial path. Also recommend this for managers in companies who want to maintain an entrepreneurial culture as their company grows, or anyone concerned about solutions for global issues.

It was refreshing to read interviews with entrepreneurs of "lesser" known, but equally remarkable successes. As the economy forces many to seek new forms of income, I hope they are encouraged by these stories. Thanks to Sramana for giving them a voice!

Many Silicon Valley high tech insiders and engineers found companies and sell them for lots of money, only to realize that outside their local circles, they are not well-known, or perhaps their inventions have not caused any lasting changes. A good book can cause more positive change than many technological inventions, a fact that spurs some high-tech entrepreneurs to write, hoping to leave a mark on a broader audience. Ms. Mitra's first book, _Entrepreneur Journeys_, isn't about her life, but about other high tech founders and their experiences. The bursting of the tech bubble caused many good companies to fade away, but many of them still survive and operate with less publicity. Their products continue to be relevant, but the companies are no longer on the front page of any newspapers. Without Ms. Mitra's book, we would probably never hear about the founders she interviews, or their stories (including one enjoyable story of someone who almost stuck it to Microsoft--see Mr. Courtot's story).

Her access to lesser-known but inspirational entrepreneurs gives Ms. Mitra's book a good niche. However, it is obvious that her book should have been more carefully proofread. High tech entrepreneurs are successful because they act quickly and take risks. This passion doesn't always transfer well to writing or publishing books, which requires extensive re-writing and careful diligence. Here, spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes exist throughout the book (e.g., p. 6, Lyndon Johnson is spelled "Linden Johnson"; p. 86, "death knell" is spelled "death nail"). If you can ignore these spelling mistakes, and you are interested in the origins of lesser-known technology companies, you will like _Entrepreneur Journeys_, Vol. 1. Ms. Mitra has positioned this book as the first volume in a set yet to come. With better proofreading and better organization, subsequent editions should be rewarding to read. Ms. Mitra's first foray into a new area didn't lead to her best work, but with more experience, I wouldn't count her out.

Entrepreneur's Journey goes into the depths of each founder's life, their motivation, continued driving forces and describes in great details their unique technical, business and marketing challenges. When I started reading the book I mentally compared it to the "Founders at Work" in which entrepreneurs are similarly interviewed. One will see however that the author of this book successfully poses very probing questions - that clearly displays a knowledge of technology and business and therefore helps engage the reader very actively, coercing them into analyzing the pros and cons of each decisions during the journey. It was a great read for my analytical mind that refuses to easily accept a decision choice without being explained the complex personal and marketing choices that went into it.
(I found it interesting that the first two stories were interconnected - with respect to the optical communication meltdown !)
The book is very current in terms of the technology and trends it refers to. It is also very useful to young entrepreneurs like me to help learn more about the evolution of technology and industry (and consolidations) in the last twenty thirty years.
In this book one learns a lot about company culture, cost cutting, humility .. even the value of extreme skiing in entrepreneurship !

Truly inspirational book... Every journey will ignite your entrepreneurial spirit... Great Insights...

Well structured format: set the context, background of the entrepreneur, their current venture, the marketplace, their challenges and their success factors.

Each journey is unique; Sramana Mitra has clearly captured the insights in each journey.

A must-read book for every entrepreneur.

I generally throw unsolicited books right into the post office's paper waste bin (hint to publishers: ASK first), but this one was close enough to my interests and offers a favorable first impression, so I held on to it and finally read it today.

It is a series of vignettes, one third context, one third financing, and one third nuggets, and for the nuggets alone (many summarized below) it is assuredly worthy of purchase and reflection.

As a long-time fan of Peter Drucker's, and especially his focus on work as a calling and capitalism as doing well financially by doing good for the customer, I have an early note, "in the Drucker tradition." That is *very* high praise.

My flyleaf notes:

+ In author's words that resonate with me, "captures tribal knowledge."

+ Bootstrapping avoids VC micro-management and allows patience

+ Ego objections from earlier generations of engineers are common.

+ Chinese push hundreds of PhD students into any strategic technology area of interest to the government, fiber optics was one

+ Self-manufacture protects intellectual property

+ Malaysia costs for clean rooms, skilled labor, etc one tenth of costs in Silicon Valley or California generally

+ "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." I loved this. I am both a strategists and a cultural creative, and it drives me bonkers to see our government so stupid on both fronts (and most corporations as well)

+ Bright kids without degrees can be rapidly trained to do specified engineering tasks at much lower costs with much higher consistency than college and advanced degree graduates.

+ In examining a company, compare marketing versus engineering investment (dollars, number of people) for a read on the core values

+ Web 3.0 is here now, leveraging bots in context to tailor delivery

+ Google does have vulnerabilities and vertical search is one of them.

+ Old media (e.g. Washington Post) not leveraging Internet and not leveraging their legacy human networks.

+ Enterprise computing has been displaced by extended enterprise and cloud computing. Microsoft Office in a virtual nosedive (finally!)

+ Security and distributed collaborative networks are totally entwined (or should be).

+ Sucking chest wound for progress right now, world-wide and especially in Third World, is absence of ubiquitous broadband access.

+ Latin America is ready to become the next India (especially Brazil, Argentina, Chile).

+ Planet-scale solutions are emerging--am blown away by Energy Recovery PX that has dropped cost of desalinating a cubic meter of water from $10 to $0.46.

+ Being there personally (Malaysia, India, wherever) is vastly superior to remote contact via telephone, video, etcetera.

+ New stuff such as solar lighting can leverage existing rural area capabilities such as electricians servicing the small middle class, who can extend solar lighting units into the lower class households.

+ HUGE HUGE HUGE: Obopay and a calling card rather than the cell phone may be the next big leap for the five billion poor. Although I still believe in free low-cost cell phones as the national bootstrap method, this one hit me with the force of a 2 x 4 wood stud wielded by a seriously pissed-off gorilla.

+ Every company in here is interesting, but Indded.com, SimplyHired, HotChalk, MercadoLibre, and PX as well as Obopay were for me truly worthy introductions.

On a personal note, the financial crash cost me the sale of my for-profit as well as my flagship contract, and SimplyHired in one hour was better for me in job hunting than all the other sites including LinkedIn. Still seeking global-impact employment, personal details at OSS.Net, non-profit details at Earth Intelligence Network.

This is one of those rare books that inspire me to suggest to Amazon that a future alert feature is needed, I am interested in anything this author puts together in the future.

I will end with some other books I recommend (I have summary reviews for all of them, but Amazon buries my reviews now because of the 20% negatives that come with controversial non-fiction books--you have to select me as an "Interesting Person" first, then my reviews "pop up". See the comment for a URL to an annotated bibliography with direct links to my reviews of over 500 non-fiction books pertinent to our shared future.

One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize and Engage Youth
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics
The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition
Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution
Conscious Evolution: Awakening Our Social Potential
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

Sramana has done an excellent work in putting together so many experiences in nutshell in a single book. Each of the cases discussed in the book is concise enough to be on the point, but does not bypass the important issues about setting and running a business in new technologies. I like the question answer format of the cases; this gives liveliness to the cases. The selection of the cases also needs to be praised - it covers wide variety of technologies and some well-known ventures. Entrepreneur in any field can extract the meaningful tangible knowledge out of this book. Many books has been written based on Silicon Valley entrepreneurship, but I am not aware of any other book that can be used such widely as this book can.

The language used in the book is very lucid and simple. The question-answer format does not break the flow of reading; rather it has been done in a very diligent manner. The technological jargon has been kept to a minimum or well explained, where necessary.

I will recommend this book to anyone who is starting or thinking of starting a new business in any field. The book is also an interesting read for business students to learn various dimensions of a high-tech venture. The cases discussed in the book can be used a typical classroom case discussion. So in essence this is an excellent book with wide applicability and suitable for a diverse audience.

I recently read Entrepreneur Journeys, and I absolutely loved it. I am a tech enthusiast so, I found the interviews very "real" as opposed to the overnight success stories that are always in the forefront. The concept and birth of the vastly unique start ups were fascinating. I'm not an entrepreneur, but I love the worlds of business and technology - and you book was a perfect blend of both. I look forward to reading volume 2.

Natasha

Entrepreneur Journeys condenses the aspirations of a dozen of entrepreneurs and present them in such clear and intriguing ways that everyone--even those with no background in business or entrepreneurship--can learn a great deal.

As a freshman at MIT, I stumbled upon this book during my Christmas break inadvertently. Never having thought about entrepreneurship or founding my own company, I opened the book with a sense of curiosity and even defiance--I felt strongly about becoming a quant or pursuing similar careers in the finance sector. Isn't entrepreneurship just an euphemism for "self-employed" or just adventures people go on in an adrenaline rush? And isn't success in this field based solely on luck? After reading just a few pages, however, I became instantly gripped by the the inspirations these stories carried. My misgivings for this sector of highly-motivated and responsible businessmen disappeared. Luck only comes after a disciplined foundation of technical expertise and industry analysis. Their pioneering vision, work ethic, and long-term insights--some having even paid for their startups' employees out of their own pockets--changed my outlook for this economy and even my own career future.

I would strongly recommend this book to others who know little what entrepreneurship really is. I hope more people will read this book and become inspired as I was.